Typically, a rebate offer is made by a manufacturer or retailer to a retail purchaser upon the purchase of a designated product or service. Subsequent to the purchase transaction the purchaser undertakes rebate redemption by providing information to the entity responsible for fulfillment of the rebate offer. The responsible entity verifies the rebate claim and transfers the promised rebate value to the purchaser.
The product and service purchasing process can be time consuming for a purchaser. Many of today's products and services, for example, computers and other electronic products and services are complex. In many cases more than one component must be purchased to provide all available features of a purchased product or service. A purchaser of such a product or service may neglect to purchase the additional components with the purchased item at the time of purchase.
In some cases a purchaser may lack sufficient funds to purchase additional items at the time the first item is purchased. Even when the first purchased item is associated with a cash rebate offer, a purchaser has no way to immediately apply the cash rebate to offset the purchase price of additional items. With existing systems the purchaser wishing to apply a rebate to purchase additional products must complete the transaction associated with the rebate. Later the purchaser initiates the rebate redemption process by making a claim and waits for the completion of the redemption process and delivery of the rebate value before he or she can apply the rebate to an additional purchase. In many cases the purchaser must return to a store to purchase additional items, applying the redeemed rebate value to the purchase price of the additional items. This delay is frustrating, time consuming and expensive for many purchasers. As a result the use of otherwise valuable rebates to offset the cost of purchases is discouraged.
In addition, further trips to stores or Internet searches may need to be conducted before the purchaser can locate and obtain desired additional items. Further, many purchasers are unaware of the range, function, availability or cost of the various products and services that may be of interest to the purchaser of the original item. At the same time, vendors of products and services are faced with the challenge of identifying those purchasers who may be interested in certain items. Even if potential interested purchasers are identified, the vendor still faces the challenge of bringing the items to the attention of potentially interested purchasers. Further, even if brought to the attention of an interested purchaser, that purchaser may not have sufficient funds to purchase the item at the time of the offer.
Thus, inefficiencies exit in the marketplace for both vendors and consumers in the rebate redemption process. Because of the aggravation and delay involved in redeeming rebates, many purchasers who are otherwise eligible do not take full advantage of rebate offers by applying the rebate value to subsequent purchases.
Retailers also encounter frustrations in the rebate process due to limitations of conventional rebate processing systems. Because a rebate cannot be redeemed until a purchaser leaves the issuing retailer's establishment, the issuing retailer risks losing the benefit that would otherwise be obtained if the value of the rebate value were made available to the purchaser at the time of the original purchase. In that case, the issuing retailer is more likely to gain an additional sale through the purchaser's use of his or her rebate value while the retailers other offers are easily accessible.
Therefore there is a need for methods and systems for redeeming rebates and other promotional offers that enable purchasers to apply the value of these offers to offset the purchase cost of additional products and services of relevance to an individual purchaser. Further there is a need for method and systems that inform purchasers of products and services that may be of particular interest to them as individual purchasers.
It is further desirable for retailers to be enabled to provide redemption options that are more likely to result in application of the rebate value to additional purchased from the issuing retailer. It is further desirable that product and service offerings tailored to an individual purchaser's needs and desires be made available to the purchaser in a timely manner without the need to wait for completion of a lengthy redemption process and without the need for further searching and additional shopping excursions to purchase accessories and other products and services.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,748,365 to Quinlan, et al. is directed to method and system for processing product marketing rebate claims submitted by a consumer in satisfaction of a rebate offer. An electronic file transfer is received from a point-of-sale data processing and storage system comprising purchase data records, each record comprising the list of products purchased and the transaction serial number for a qualified transaction in which at least one designated product was purchased. Each stored data record is associated with a purchase data record having an identical serial number, and the records are processed to validate a purchaser's rebate claim. If a purchaser has a plurality of valid rebate claims the value of each rebate offer is determined. The monetary value of the aggregated rebate claims is transferred to the purchaser. At that point the rebate process for that transaction or aggregated transactions is terminated.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/661,886 (Cont) to Quinlan, et al. is directed to method and system for processing product marketing rebate claims submitted by a purchaser in satisfaction of a rebate offer. An electronic file transfer is received from a point-of-sale data processing and storage system comprising purchase data records, each record comprising the list of products purchased and the transaction serial number for a qualified transaction in which at least one designated product was purchased.
Each stored data record is associated with a purchase data record having an identical serial number, and the records are processed to validate a purchaser's rebate claim. The value of the rebate offer is transferred to the purchaser. This system additionally provides for optional integration of paper-based and smart/credit/debit-card-based rebate claims. After transferring the value of a rebate to a smart/credit/debit card, the rebate process for that transaction or aggregated transactions is terminated.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/098,948 (CIP) to Quinlan, et al. is directed to method and system for processing product marketing rebate claims submitted by a consumer in satisfaction of a rebate offer. An electronic file transfer is received from a point-of-sale data processing and storage system comprising purchase data records, each record comprising the list of products purchased and the transaction serial number for a qualified transaction in which at least one designated product was purchased.
Each stored data record is associated with a purchase data record having an identical serial number, and the records are processed to validate a purchaser's rebate claim. The value of the rebate offer is transferred to the consumer. Embodiments are discussed relating to transactions on a computer network, making rebate claims via a wireless communications device, and use by membership clubs or in conjunction with loyalty cards or other designated cards.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/768,639 (CIP2) directed to methods and apparatus for redeeming promotional offers in product marketing rebates wherein the purchaser is not required to submit information as to the identity of the product/services purchased in order to receive the value associated with the promotional offer at some time after the purchase transaction.
While each of the above systems and methods provide a convenient way to process rebate claims, each has the same drawbacks. That is, the redemption process is carried out in isolation from a retail sales environment where additional products and services could be promptly offered to a purchaser in exchange for rebate value. Instead existing systems typically deliver the rebate value to the purchaser at a time and in a place that is sub optimal for a timely offering of additional products and services to the purchaser. The problem of efficiently and cost effectively enabling a purchaser to apply the monetary value of a received rebate claim to subsequent purchases in a timely manner, and to offers that may be of particular interest to an individual purchaser remains unsolved. After the monetary value of the rebate is received, a purchaser still faces inconvenience, delay and possible extra costs, for example travel costs, when applying the transferred monetary value to purchase additional items and/or services.
Accordingly there remains a need for rebate systems and methods which incorporate flexibility to facilitate application of a monetary value associated with redeemed rebate claims to subsequent purchases. Further, there remains a need to bring vendors of products and services together with potentially interested purchasers such that purchasers can easily and efficiently apply there available rebate values to purchase additional products and services from the issuing retailer.